Whither education?

I have waited until the Sunday newspapers have had time to comment on the proposal, released on October 23rd, that there shall henceforth be a system of both diplomas and A levels. Mr Balls said, “an A-Level review scheduled for 2008 will now be postponed and…a first review of 14-19 qualifications will instead take place in 2013.”, and predicted that the new diplomas could become “the qualification of choice.” This is in spite of a ministerial pledge, reported in the Telegraph on September 7th , that “by 2010 a school in every town in England will offer the International Baccalaureate (IB), in which 16 to 18-year-old students undertake a broader range of study and take part in extra-curricular activities and community service.”

So what is happening in education? In case you are wondering what these diplomas will be, it is envisaged that instead of three or four A levels, you will take one diploma and get a points score. The first five, and I quote the department for children, schools and families here, “in Construction and the Built Environment, Creative and Media, Engineering, Information Technology and Society, Health and Development will be offered for the first time next September to nearly 40,000 young people in almost 900 schools and colleges around the country.” Chris Woodhead in today’s Sunday Times, is not impressed, and says, “These ludicrous diplomas…will neither challenge academically able students nor give the practically minded any reason to stick with an education system that has failed them miserably.” And Cambridge university is, in exasperation over the continuing debasement of A levels, introducing its own exam from 2008, the Cambridge pre-U, which will involve studying three subjects over two a two year period, with final exams and an extended essay. This exam is, according to their international examinations media information, “a post-16 qualification which aims to prepare students with the skills and knowledge required to make a success of their subsequent studies at university.”

The result, as far as I can see, is that schools will be faced with a choice, and they will not have the means or the facilities to offer all these exams together. Thus the most academic will offer the Cambridge Pre-U, as the master of Dulwich College has predicted will be the route taken by most fee-paying schools; those state schools which get respectable A level results will see no reason to change the current system, and those that are clearly and obviously failing will introduce the new diploma. Some state schools may be compelled to introduce the new diploma it has not yet been made clear how the lucky 900 schools are to be selected next September. In 2013, we can expect a review of the entire examination system, by which time neither teachers nor pupils will know which way is up, and the government can put any spin it likes on the results because whatever they are, they will be fragmented.